DOE COVERING UP CORONAVIRUS IN SCHOOLS CONTINUES TO BE REPORTED IN PRESS

There are two pieces in the media today on the coronavirus being present in NYC schools before they were closed and this being covered up by the Department of Education.

What is noticeably missing from the Post and the Politico articles is something updated from the official United Federation of Teachers. The last we heard from the Union on these topics was on Tuesday when the UFT released a statement saying the DOE did not follow protocols.

This blog has been furious with the UFT for letting members go into buildings to work when the Union had knowledge that schools were unsafe. Mulgrew and company put the rank and file in peril because they were afraid that the Taylor Law's prohibition against strikes would be invoked and they would lose automatic dues checkoff. Money before members. The anti-strike provisions were not going to be invoked during a pandemic if the UFT told members not to report to work in schools. Even if the anti-strike law was implemented by the DOE, I have a question for President Mulgrew: 

Would you rather lose dues or put the health of members at risk? 

The UFT answered that their dues are more important than member health by NOT telling members in no uncertain terms that buildings were not safe so don't enter them. 

We have been mulling over some ideas as to how to move ahead in a pro-union, anti leadership way.

From the NY Post:

 Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza dismissed accusations that he sought to “cover up” coronavirus cases — claiming Friday they were without merit because they were made to The Post.

Rather than address the issue on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” he suggested that the on-the-record comments made by a union chapter leader were to be ignored.

“Number one, it’s The Post,” he said, referring to United Federation of Teachers chapter leader Nate Bonheimer’s concerns.

Bonheimer said five Brooklyn Tech teachers called him to report that they had tested positive for coronavirus earlier this month when schools were still open.

Rather than shutter the 6,000-student campus, the DOE instead kept the doors open after noting that the building had been cleaned.

“They did not alert the people who needed to know the most to protect themselves, their families and everyone else they came into contact with,” Bonheimer said.

Carranza said Bonheimer and his colleagues did not have the standing to assess his performance because they are unable to appreciate the demands of his position.

At the end, Carranza added that schools are not likely to open again this school year.

From today's Politico NY piece:

Educators and advocates are raising alarms over the city’s decision to stop publicly confirming positive cases of the coronavirus in school communities — as even with schools closed, teachers, parents and students may be left in the dark over their exposure to the potentially fatal disease.

They point to a lack of clear protocols from the Department of Education for schools where staffers tested positive, and expressed frustration the city has not revealed the number of DOE employees who contracted the virus. Even after schools were closed, teachers and other staff reported to school for three days from March 17 to 19 for remote learning training.

City Council education chair Mark Treyger said the DOE has been leaving it up to individual principals but cautioned that was not enough to safeguard school communities.

“A number of teachers are primary caretakers for their parents who are elderly, who are in the high-risk category and they have been self-quarantining at home with their family this past week,” Treyger told POLITICO. “They need to know immediately if they've been exposed to the virus. Many of our children are medically fragile, many of our children have special needs.”

Dez-Ann Romain, principal of Brooklyn Democracy Academy in Brownsville, died from complications stemming from the coronavirus. Ronda Phillips, principal of Kappa V High School — in the same building — has been hospitalized, along with two DOE employees in the building.

Treyger called for an investigation, and the United Federation of Teachers, the city’s teachers union, suggested the city’s Health Department did not follow protocols for all schools.

“In the week leading up to system-wide school closure, we had been given information that led us to believe that the New York City Department of Health was not following the school closing protocol issued by the state for COVID-19,” the union said in a statement this week.


De Blasio denied the claim when asked Thursday.

“I have no evidence whatsoever that those guidelines were not followed in the past. If anyone wants to provide me evidence, I'll look at it," he said. "I believe those guidelines were followed properly when we were in a whole different reality a couple of weeks ago.”

Teachers and other staffers said they were exposed to the coronavirus at a number of large high school campuses, including the Grace Dodge Educational Campus in the Bronx, the Jamaica High School campus in Queens, the Grand Street campus in Williamsburg and the Alfred E. Smith campus in the Bronx.

Before the city moved to close the school system, the DOE publicly announced individual schools with cases. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said any school where a student tests positive should be closed for at least 24 hours. The mayor said the city stopped confirming cases due to the large number.

The DOE said that when school was in session, it immediately notified communities when there was a confirmed case by the Health Department and closed the school, which it said happened once, noting they followed state Health Department guidance. Self-reported positive cases, they said, depend on an individual rather than a centralized database.

The education department said the state told them the school closure guidance doesn’t apply after schools close, but said it continued to deep-clean schools daily, including enrichment centers and meal hubs.

“Out of an abundance of caution, when school was in session, we closed six more sites that had self-reported cases, and we continue to support schools in notifying their communities of a self-reported positive case,” DOE spokesperson Miranda Barbot said in a statement. “Though as of March 13, the last day of school, the City’s Health Department advised that a positive case in the school or workplace environment did not put others at higher risk than did anywhere else in the city.”

Since the disease has a 14-day incubation period when symptoms may not emerge, many are arguing that guidance is putting people at risk.

Treyger said he informed the DOE of a pregnant teacher at P.S. 199 in Brooklyn who was hospitalized. (The DOE said they did not have confirmation from the state Health Department). She notified her principal, who notified DOE Central, which did not close the building. The school building reopened, and five additional teachers tested positive.

And before the city closed schools, Treyger said the principal of Abraham Lincoln High School on Coney Island learned a student tested positive. The principal notified DOE Central, which said the building has to remain open.

Teachers at the Grace Dodge campus, which has three co-located schools, said a staffer self-ported a positive case March 12. In a March 18 letter, New York City schools Chancellor Richard Carranza said the building was disinfected but that the schools would not be closed.

“It was after they made the call to close all schools that they finally acknowledged that Grace Dodge had had a positive case prior,” a teacher at the school, who requested anonymity, said, noting teachers have taken up the responsibility to inform students and families.

The Politico article then cites the MORE Caucus asking the DOE for an apology for not telling us there was coronavirus in buildings. MORE also wants the days put back in sick banks if members took off and something to address inequalities in outer borough healthcare.

Note to MORE, if the DOE admits they are wrong, they are subjecting themselves to some major lawsuits. That is my guess as to why the UFT has suddenly stopped yelling on this issue. They know they are guilty too.